For the most part, the NFL‘s film vs. analytics debate — also known as scouts vs. nerds — no longer exists. It’s not that one side won that battle. Instead, scouting departments and analytics groups have, for the most part, learned to coexist inside NFL front offices.
Every organization has at least someone working with data analysis entering the 2024 season. But some clubs have invested more heavily than others in their analytics staffs, building groups that can add context as general managers address free agency, trades, the NFL Draft, health and injuries, contracts, advance scouting, and in-game decision-making.
Who are the NFL’s most analytics-friendly teams in 2024? Let’s run through the top 10, starting with the franchise that employs one of the league’s most forward-thinking head coaches.
The 10 Most Analytics-Friendly NFL Teams
Honorable mention: Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers, New York Giants, Miami Dolphins, Los Angeles Rams
10) Detroit Lions
Dan Campbell remains the NFL’s most aggressive head coach on fourth downs. In 2023, according to TruMedia, the Lions went for it on fourth down a league-leading 33% of the time, well above the NFL-average 20%.
Campbell drew criticism for his fourth-down decisions in the NFC Championship Game when Detroit went 1-for-3 in an eventual loss to the 49ers, but most fourth-down models said Campbell was right to eschew field goals in those situations.
Of course, going for fourth downs alone doesn’t necessarily mean an NFL organization is analytics-friendly. However, Campbell also employs creative offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, whose work with analytics has earned praise. Meanwhile, Detroit referenced general manager Brad Holmes’ familiarity with analytical work when it hired him in 2021.
The Lions selected a first-round running back (Jahmyr Gibbs) and an off-ball linebacker (Jack Campbell) in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft, which hardly squares with modern positional value trends. Still, Detroit seems more open to new ways of thinking than most NFL franchises.
9) Jacksonville Jaguars
While Jaguars general manager Trent Baalke might be more of an old-school, scouting-track executive, Jacksonville invests in the analytics space.
Tony Khan, the son of Jaguars owner Shad Khan, heads Jacksonville’s 13-member Football Strategy department. That group includes director of football analytics Ryan Paganetti, who worked with now-Jags head coach Doug Pederson with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Pederson’s willingness to go for it on fourth downs was critical during the Eagles’ Super Bowl run in 2017. Paganetti, a Dartmouth grad in economics, was on the headset with Pederson, helping the Philadelphia HC through aggressive decisions on fourth downs, two-point attempts, and clock management.
8) Indianapolis Colts
The Colts would’ve ranked higher here a few years ago, but the club has lost several key members of its analytics group in recent years. In 2023, data scientist John Park left to join the Dallas Cowboys, while George Li departed for the Carolina Panthers.
In Seth Walder’s 2021 NFL analytics survey for ESPN, one AFC staff praised Indy’s efforts. “I hear the Colts do some interesting things with game management. I hear [Frank] Reich is really into it, and those guys are really involved.”
Reich is no longer with the Colts, but current head coach Shane Steichen comes from the same Pederson/Philadelphia coaching roots. Indy still has director of football analytics Greg Starek, game manager Charlie Gelman, and strategic football analyst Nick Bayh on its front-office directory.
7) Carolina Panthers
This is a bit of a projection, but the Panthers are moving in the right direction from an analytics perspective.
In 2023, former Colts game management coordinator George Li followed Reich to Carolina in the same role. Reich didn’t make it through the season, but Li is still on new Panthers head coach Dave Canales’ staff.
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In 2024, Carolina hired former Kansas City Chiefs executive Brandt Tillis to work alongside new general manager Dan Morgan. Tillis spent time as a contract analyst, director of salary cap and football operations analytics, and director of football administration before ending his K.C. career as vice president of football operations.
In May, the Panthers made their most intriguing hire yet — former Pro Football Focus analyst and Sumer Sports vice president Eric Eager, who joined the club in an unspecified analytics role.
6) Dallas Cowboys
The Cowboys went on an analytics hiring spree in 2023, hoping to gain an edge by adding talented staffers from other progressive organizations.
First, Dallas hired the Colts’ Park as its director of strategic football operations. The Cowboys made five more analytics hires last year, including former Baltimore Ravens player personnel analyst Sarah Mallepalle.
Fascinating hire.
Mallepalle told @bykevinclark at a panel discussion in 2022 that her biggest evolution since entering the league is that she now believes individual running backs matter a great deal more than she once did. https://t.co/oZ63Nvb08t
— Bobby Belt (@BobbyBeltTX) June 17, 2023
Mike McCarthy infamously met with Pro Football Focus and touted his eagerness to work with analytics staffers before taking the Cowboys’ head coaching job in 2020. However, as The Athletic’s Kalyn Kahler examined last year, McCarthy hasn’t always followed optimal in-game strategies.
For more on Dallas’ analytics revolution, check out David Howman’s three-part series on Blogging the Boys.
5) Minnesota Vikings
Kevin Cole of Unexpected Points wrote last year that the NFL has entered its “analytics general manager” era, identifying the many recent GM hires who’ve expounded on their openness to analytics at their introductory press conferences.
Still, only one NFL general manager has risen through a genuine analytics track: Vikings GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, who graduated from Stanford with a masters in economics and worked on Wall Street before joining the 49ers as manager of football research and development in 2013.
Adofo-Mensah was the Cleveland Browns’ VP of football operations from 2020-21 before taking over Minnesota’s front office in 2022.
“You could see how (Adofo-Mensah) had been able to build relationships across a number of different groups during his time at San Francisco in a role that can be very challenging, because you have to be able to not only develop (analytic) insights, but communicate them and get people to buy in,” Browns GM Andrew Berry said in 2021.
It’s worth noting that, as Tyler Forness of Wide Left wrote in April, Adofo-Mensah has repeatedly violated a central analytics tenet by trading up in drafts. By some accounting, the Vikings’ series of trades that ended with them selecting EDGE Dallas Turner at No. 17 cost Minnesota the equivalent of the fifth overall pick in the draft.
4) Buffalo Bills
Brandon Beane has consistently beefed up the Bills’ analytics group since becoming general manager in 2017.
The following year, he hired Luis Guilamo as Buffalo’s director of analytics and application development. In 2022, the Bills promoted Dennis Lock to senior director of football research and hired former interns Drew DiSanto and Malcolm Charles as full-time employees, bringing Buffalo’s analytics roster to seven.
The Bills have ranked fourth in each of Walder’s last three NFL analytics surveys.
“Sometimes what comes out is they can point out things: ‘There’s no receiver that’s ever started in the league with stats like this or measurables like this,'” Beane said in 2022, per Jay Skurski of the Buffalo News.
“You say, ‘All right, let’s check this out. Well, is this an exception player that will overcome that, or is that a red flag we need to talk about as far as the value?’ Maybe he’ll play in the league, but maybe we had him valued more as a starter on the draft board. Maybe we should slot him down a little bit.”
3) Philadelphia Eagles
Analytics were regularly cited as a driving force behind the Eagles’ run to Super Bowl LII, as Pederson was one of the league’s more aggressive coaches on fourth downs and two-point conversions.
Pederson eventually clashed with Philadelphia’s analytics staff, but Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie has supported analytics investments for years. Former Eagles executive Joe Banner was analytics-friendly and ahead of the curve in acquiring draft picks in volume.
“We are pretty obsessed with it,” Lurie said in 2019. “And we’re always looking to figure out how we can be much better at it. … We have to be the best we can be, and it’s not just about mining lots of data. We will collect a lot of data and it’s what you do with it. I think that’s the key.”
Eagles general manager Howie Roseman, arguably the NFL’s best executive, entered the league as a salary-cap analyst and has typically adhered to analytical trends in positional spending and draft-pick allocation. He regularly creates value via trades, while Philadelphia is more creative with its salary cap than any team in the NFL.
2) Baltimore Ravens
“Information is everything,” Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said in 2021. “Information is king, I guess, you might say. The opportunities that we have now to just get so much more information through technology, different programs, different areas, different places, that’s what you try to make sure that you try to take advantage of.”
As Aaron Schatz, the godfather of NFL analytics, said after the Ravens tried (and failed) on three two-point conversions against the Chiefs in 2019, Harbaugh might be “the prince that was promised.”
Harbaugh has remained open to analytically-inclined ideas, while the Ravens boast one of the NFL’s more robust analytics staffs.
“You continuously see Baltimore make analytically sound decisions,” one respondent told Walder in his 2022 NFL analytics survey. Another staffer said that the Ravens are “usually aligned with consensus opinion in the draft, an indicator of their quantitative-leaning mindset.”
Baltimore is undoubtedly the only team with a director of football strategy who doubles as its assistant quarterbacks coach (Daniel Stern).
1) Cleveland Browns
While the Ravens finished first in Walder’s 2020 NFL analytics survey, the Browns were No. 1 in 2021 and 2022 (the final year the survey was conducted).
Cleveland earned repeated praise and seemed to be lapping the rest of the league with its analytics work. When Walder surveyed the league on the matter of which NFL team is the most analytically advanced, the Browns earned 17 of 22 votes in 2021 and 10 of 21 (the plurality) in 2022.
In both years, Walder’s respondents said that Cleveland produced the highest level of analytics work and did the best job of incorporating analytics into its decision-making process.
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Browns general manager Andrew Berry advanced through the NFL’s scouting world but graduated from Harvard with degrees in economics and computer science.
In Walder’s most recent front-office check-in, Cleveland had more analytics staffers — nine — than any other club. That includes Browns chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta, the former MLB general manager of Moneyball fame.
“[The Browns] have an analytically minded GM — they have leadership all the way, director level and above, who is quantitatively inclined,” a survey-taker told Walder in 2022.